Sunday, 06 June 2010

Lacking in D.C.

Tom Hanks character "Forrest Gump" had a truly memorable line: "Stupid is as stupid does."

Forrest was often thought of as being stupid for his lack of "intelligence." But what he lacked in
intelligence, he excelled in common sense, heroism, and fidelity. Forrest Gump inspired us to do good; to do what is right and not expedient; to stick by your friends until the bitter end.

That kind of leadership and thinking IS NOT what is prevalent in our nation's capital.

Back in December 2009, President Obama held his so-called
"jobs summit." The one remark that just made my blood boil was the
President saying (paraphrase), "businesses need to put aside
profits for
the time being and just hire people." My jaw dropped. I'll bet many other
business owners' jaws all over the country did too. And so, I wrote him. Anybody who runs a business or even a household understands that you can only spend what you have. A business can only hire more people or purchase more inventory or make capital improvements if it has profits. Heck, you can't even get a loan without profits!

When the White House finally wrote back last week, dated May 20, 2010.
Aside from touting the stimulus (?) bill and the upcoming disaster of the health care bill (along with its myriad of new rules, taxes and bureaucracies) all that was offered were several links to agencies providing loans.Those in government, who have never had to
make a payroll in their entire careers or successfully run ANYTHING, are inept
at best or incompetent at least.They
just don't get it. Why would anyone in their right mind want to take on more debt when they're up to their armpits in it already? It doesn't make sense.

Federal
Reserve Chairman Bernanke is urging
banks to lend more. We business owners DON'T WANT LOANS! We do want our
customers to have "loose change" in their pockets. Enough loose
change to go on vacation; to buy a hot tub; to buy new stuff for their home or
apartment; to go out to dinner on a weekly basis. To enjoy some of the simple pleasures of life.The problem is, many of our customers don't
have enough of this loose change.For
that reason, the unemployment picture is poor and not looking any better for
the foreseeable future.

In fact the picture may look worse as the President's men and those loose spenders (of YOUR money by the way), continue to spend money they don't have (not yet anyway). Oh, remember that unless Congress extends the tax cuts that President Bush put into place after the 9-11 attack, YOUR taxes (mine too) are going up significantly as of January 1, 2011.

And that's just at the federal level! All of our state and local property taxes, sales taxes, you name 'em, are typically going up. Our so-called leaders are addicted to OUR money. It makes you wonder what they're thinking.

One of my favorite quotes of all time, to be used in a variety of circumstances comes from a kid's movie. In the movie "Lion King", the antagonist Scar (with the great voice of Jeremy Irons) says
it best: "I'm surrounded by idiots." How true.